California - The Adventure Republic

hello. for a change, i will start posting my ride reports here rather than keeping them in the regional west - california so that we can share our dirty treasure with everyone else, especially those from out of states.

this is kind of the adv version of huell howser's california gold....haha, got the idea. i am hoping you people come and visit ca - spend your $$$ and help our economy....

as far as the title, that's not me but a fictional rider or any rider who doesn't want to start a new thread or have limited materials to make a ride report. it's all about adventure or dual sport riding and want to share their experiences.

home is about 15 miles north of los angeles.our destination is central coast, north of san simeon (hearst castle)

my bike is a 2002 640e with 3.8 gal tank
since there's a lot of pavement involve, i put on a tkc 80 front and metzeler sahara 3 rear; ususlly i run dunlop 606s
wolfman enduro tank bag for this ride, and the explorer lite for longer trips
giant loop coyote - they're the best set up for this bike
wolfman expedition small duffel bag is good enough for tent and beddings

hot enough.....

riding north on the freeway

enjoying the shade - duy, blake, isaac, and bob; meantime, the rest of the group are already in the campground

on the most part, we took 2-lane back roads

tax dollars at work

because of late start and a major delay, we made it to camp in the dark. my camera didn't start clicking again until the next morning. i'm sure the other PPs have pics to share riding and chiling out in camp.

Now, what NSFW doesn't tell here is that he is the ride master guru for hundreds of noob and experienced riders alike. He puts together the best tracks and ride adventures in So-Cal.

On this particular ride I got aced out at work and had to stay late so didn't get to leave the city 'till 7pm for a four hour ride to the first campsite. I'm old and don't see so well at night so it was a real adventure to cover a couple of hundred miles after dark. The 20 miles of dirt road into camp in the dark I made about 35 miles an hour. The next day in the daylight 65 was no problem. What a contrast. Some of the peeps were still up when I got there and I got the kings welcome. A beautiful night on the plains.

I just got a new bike and this trip was the maiden voyage. What a trip indeed.
Carrizo Plain National Monument was our first stop.

Heading out with Joel, Bob, Duy, Blake on Cerro Noroeste Road. The five of us initially met at McDonald's in Castaic, and then headed north from there on our way to Carrizo.

Riding into the sunset on Cerro Noroeste Road after a delay.

And by night

Big thanks to Jim/spafixer for driving out to BBQ for us and bringing a fully stocked bar! This man is a real mensch.

KCL camp in the morning, at sunrise. Perfect sleeping temps.

Jim's dog exploring around.

Blake, John, and Chris ready to roll.

Joel and crew, sun is up but not too warm just yet. Heading north through Carrizo Plain.

Some dirt roads lead us towards Pozo. Ersin chillaxing with the others.

Pozo Saloon, but early in the day.

John and others in Pozo.

Duy.

Santa Rosa Creek Road, heading west towards Cambria.

We grabbed lunch in Cambria at the first Mexican flag establishment that Joel laid his eyes on. It was quite tasty Mexican food, exactly the fuel we needed to get through the rest of the day. A lot of cool classic cars were rolling through town as well for some festival or show.

Elephant Seals are always fun. San Simeon.

Heading north up the coast on CA-1.

Blake and Ersin on CA-1.

Joel, Ersin, Blake, and crew at the start of Los Burros Road...this road is quite a gem!

On the way up Los Burros. I took my windscreen off and am really digging it...the clean air flow (no more turbulent wind buffeting on my helmet), plus it has more of a roadster/Mad Maxx look to it now.

The view down Los Burros towards the coast. 60F and chilly down there, and over 90F up here. Quite the difference in temperature!

We stop on the way up to shed some layers and talked with an older gentleman who lives up there. Quite an isolated place, as there is no easy and quick drive into town for supplies.

It was close to 100 F in Fort Hunter Liggett, quite hot, so a few of guys took off to fulfill a life aspiration of camping in King City. The rest of us set up camp, and once we were in the shade it was actually not too bad since it was so dry.

Duy, Ersin, and I did a supplies run into King City to pick up beer, ice, and some snacks while the rest cooked up their camp food. We, on the other hand, dined like kings at the Taco Bell! Much better the a boiling bag of camp food!

Getting ready to break camp the next morning.

Joel in the middle of packing his lumpia pad.

John, heading back west on Nacimiento Fergusson Road towards the coast. Nice and cool still.

Duy and Joel getting ready to drop back into the fog.

Bill helping John out.

On board.

Panoramic shot.

Loving this bike!

One picture of yours truly.

And finally, the GPS tracks of our ride, or at least what I rode. I had to bail near the end so I missed some of the dirt near Lake Cachuma and Santa Barbara. All in all, a great ride with some great tracks, and great people of course. I'm not always a huge fan of big group rides, but these rides with these guys are always a blast and I truly enjoy them. Thanks everyone!

We grabbed lunch in Cambria at the first Mexican flag establishment that Joel laid his eyes on. It was quite tasty Mexican food, exactly the fuel we needed to get through the rest of the day. A lot of cool classic cars were rolling through town as well for some festival or show.

The real story is we rolled into Cambria, filled up the tanks, found a taco stand, and a parking place. When the rest of the crew rolled in we asked the ride leader if he had a lunch spot and he said no. Hmmm...so we watched them keep going. We had fantastic mexican as well, then rolled on thru town watching for the rest of our group - never saw them. I must be blind as a bat.

It was chilly going up the coast, we were glad to have a warmer jacket. Hwy 1 is always a treat. We missed the turn-off for the next dirt segment but saw that the track on our GPS had broken off so we went back. The real riding began there.

We were treated to a fairly steep group of switchbacks with high camber and a few inches of silt. We made it through okay, well Johngil had no trouble on his Husky 630, but it was a bit of a challenge on the big bikes. At the top the temps had warmed a good 20 deg so we stopped to air down (now instead of before the tough stuff, duh) and took off a layer of clothing.